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Comment: Going radical? (Score 0) 150

by Ian.Waring (#40055783) Attached to: Software Patents Good For Open Source?
Patent systems were originally put in place to stop inventors hoarding ideas that would help society at large. Open source is the ultimate share - there is inherently no hoarding taking place. So, if you manage to release something under a recognised open source license, should the work be immune from patent claims anyway? Sometimes wonder what the world would be like if patent systems were all killed off completely anyway, but that's a longer story.

Comment: Scott Oki had one (Score 2) 143

by Ian.Waring (#39761125) Attached to: 30 Years of the TRS-80 Model 100
I recall Microsofts International VP, Scott Oki, tapping away on his Model 100 when he visited us at DEC in 1983. I had the privilege of taking Paul Maritz, now of VMware, into seeing my CEO in 2011, and while waiting for my CEO, got chatting about iPads. I mentioned Scott Oki, and he said he remembered Scott going everywhere with that Tandy TRS 80 Model 100. Wasn't it actually made by Kyocera?

Comment: Intel's Hail Mary Attempt (Score 1) 93

Given the price of ARM based boards (and some MIPS based ones) are below $25, run Linux really well and have 100+ factories churning them out in at least one area of China, I think Intel have over cooked their target price.

See: http://opensource.com/life/12/1/linux-hardware-race-tiniest-and-cheapest-15-cheap

Clearly, the display will be a big cost, and integrating it as one system will add more cost, but it feels like Intel will be considerably more expensive at their published price points. I'll guess at 50% higher.

Comment: Back to Mac? (Score 2) 485

by Ian.Waring (#37732096) Attached to: How To Catch a Laptop Thief?
I seem to recall an Apple Store employee managing to connect using BacktoMac to her stolen Mac and remotely taking a picture. Only gotcha was the count down to the pic being taken appearing on the screen in front of the thief. She did recognise the guy as someone who came with friends to a party at her house, and duly got her machine back. At the time, needed MobileMe to work...

Ken Olsen RIP->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "A mail going around the DEC Alumni tonight: It is with great regret that I inform you that our beloved CEO Ken Olsen passed away, yesterday in Indiana, with his immediate family all around him. Ken had been in ill health for the last few months and was in Hospice care. Sad time for their family now, but Ken and Alliki had a wonderful life. It's sad to know that they both have now passed.

Ken, RIP. You were the greatest."

Link to Original Source

Comment: Mobile Operators and Police don't help (Score 4, Informative) 109

by Ian.Waring (#34964320) Attached to: UK Cosmetic Retailer Lush Targeted By Hackers
My wife is a Lush customer, ordered online in the time period described and did have 2 £15 charges (total just north of $40) for prepay mobile phone credit debited from her account. She spotted that virtually immediately; however, her bank just wanted to snail mail post a claim form to her to get her money back, and O2 (the mobile phone company providing the goods from the fraudulent two transactions) said it was an industry agreed procedure to wait until the bank got in touch with them before they'd do anything. So, bottom line, the thieves have 5 days to use the credit they stole, when O2 could have invalided the transaction immediately and/or aimed some trace to the person using that mobile handset. About as much use as a cow on stilts. We need a Bill Bratton methinks. Follow the money, get to the source.

Comment: Bollocks (Score 2, Insightful) 82

by Ian.Waring (#33554668) Attached to: Salesforce Uses Chatter To Monitor Employees
I was at Cloudforce 2010 London when Marc Benioff said this. You can hear the comment yourself - videos of the presentations are on YouTube. It was a comment that he could see some of the interactions solving customer problems, and he could see some patterns at who were consistently the people who sorted customer problems out well and often. No sophisticated analytics. No big brother. Just a CEO who gained the ability to know what is really happening in his company and who's doing good work. Kudos to him. He and his company seem to be doing a spectularly good job, and Chatter (a sorta Facebook UI for business use) will keep it ahead. Ian W.

"That boy's about as sharp as a pound of wet liver" -- Foghorn Leghorn

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